Immigration issues

Another peculiar finding to Hotel B in the case study was the issue of immigration. The participant in Hotel B noted that one of the key explanations to labour scarcity was the applicants’ permit to work. According to the participant, most of the job applicants have work visas that places limitations on how long they can work. This has a direct impact on the recruitment and selection, and training process of the organisation. The long term impact of this is limitations placed on organisations’ strategic

initiatives especially in planning and forecasting. Migration issues has been noted by Choi, Woods, and Murrmann (2000), as one of the main issue that prevents the proper implementation of SHRM in the hotel industry. Wood (1999) is of the view that the hotel industry has been characterised by migrant workers whose visa conditions place restrictions on how long they can work, and therefore, raises the questions of staff retention and training and development. An interesting fact that needs mentioning is why the immigration issues do not affect Hotel A though the two case study hotels are located in the same locality? Possibly this could be because Hotel A is a part of a chain and could therefore rely on the chain for more permanent staff and size, or because they are able to put structures in place to attract people who may want to build a career in the industry or probably they go the extra mile to help solve this issue amongst the staff they employ. If the latter is the case then it is something that Hotel B could try considering in order to eliminate or minimise this issue, as staff turnover (Cheng & Brown, 1998) and lack of training and development (Chiang, Back, & Canter, 2005) are found to negatively impact employee performance.

6.6.3

Culture

Every organisation has a personality which is evidenced by the way things are done in that place. The various attitudes, values and beliefs that are shared and normally adhered to strictly are all inclusive of the culture in that organization. One key issue that emerged from this study is Hotel A organisational culture that empowers employees to work freely without fear of being blamed for mistakes, but rather focus on solutions, which the respondent was very proud of. The respondent stated that the existence of the good company culture can be attributed to the low staff turnover rate. This is captured in the statement made by the respondent Hotel A:

“Staff retention and turnover rates are high in Queenstown because of its seasonality but in our hotel, retention and turnover are low because of the good company culture”

The respondent said this strategy has been adopted because it helps the new employees to assimilate the workplace quickly and boost their confidence. In addition, the respondent indicated that this culture has been specifically created to enhance positive relationship between employees which it is believed would translate into positive employee-customer relations. The implication here is that once such a strategy is adopted, Hotel A is directly encouraging the development of employee citizenship behaviours right from the early stage of employment. This (employee citizenship behaviours) has been argued as by several researchers Hemdi and Nasurdin (2007); Nadiri and Tanova (2010) and Tang and Tang (2012) as having a direct influence on employee performance. For instance according to

likely to stay in employment for longer periods, gain more experience, become innovative in the ways of doing the assigned role and ultimately improve performance.

Hotel B did not mention any particular culture that they are using or practising, but the idea of picking on mistakes of staff gives no room for errors. This could be noted as an implicit culture they are practising without actually emphasising it out loud by way of putting staff on their toes to give out what they have been employed for. According to (Kemp & Dwyer, 2001) organisational culture has a significant impact on employee performance therefore, it is in the interest of organisations to reduce negative factors that impede employee performance in order to foster or a positive organisational culture.

6.7

Summary

This chapter discussed the implications of the results of the study in light of the research question, which is, how does SHRM impacts on employee performance? SHRM researchers have documented that an organisation’s success with regards to their attainment of strategic goals is reliant on its employees (Becker & Gerhart, 1996; Bloom & Milkovich, 1998; Torres & Adler, 2012). This study showed that the SHRM concepts (recruitment and selection, training, compensation and performance appraisal) impacts employee performance. With regard to recruitment, the study established that location plays a key role in the quality of staff employed (see Section 6.2), and this was found to be a challenge to both organisations studied. Both organisations train their employees using different approaches, while one is reactive, the other is structured (see Section 6.3). However, the reactive training approach was suggested by the participant to be costly, and therefore, it is not surprising that the SHRM literature recommends the structured, long term training approach for employees. Both organisations adopts a performance-based compensation approach in rewarding their employees (see Section 6.4). Similarly, both organisations appraise their staff, whereas one uses KPIs, the other picks on employee mistakes (see Section 6.5).

Whereas Hotel A is more SHRM focussed, the other, Hotel B, is not. However, as long the approaches adopted by each organisation are working and meeting their respective organisational goals, it is difficult to state that one approach far outweighs the other.

In the following, concluding chapter, Chapter 7, the main findings are reviewed, the limitations of the study are discussed and suggestions for future research – which build on the discussion in the present chapter – are discussed.

Chapter 7

Conclusion

This thesis has examined managers’ perception of how SHRM influences employee performance in the hotel industry using four (S) HRM concepts (Recruitment and Selection, Training and development, Employee Compensation and Performance Appraisal). The following research question was addressed in this study:

How does managers’ perception of SHRM impact employee performance?

Using the base of hotels in Queenstown, New Zealand, as a case study, the following objectives were developed:

1. To understand (via interviews) hotel General and HR Managers perceptions of how SHRM impacts employees’ performance.

2. Analyse (via) content analysis the interviews to establish themes.

3. To promulgate the findings of the research to the hoteliers in Queenstown by reports. This chapter provides a brief overview of the study (Section 7.1), and discusses: first, interesting contributions the study made that validated the (S) HRM literature in various ways (Section 7.2); second, contributions to knowledge, policy and practice (Section 7.3); third, possible study limitations and future research (Section 7.4).

7.1

Thesis overview

In this study, a qualitative research approach was used to examine managers’ perception of how SHRM impact on employee performance, using two case study hotels in Queenstown, New Zealand. The study established that chain hotels, by virtue of having standardised HR practices, demonstrated better application of SHRM than the small independent hotels which were found to be more reactive in their approach. The study also concluded that irrespective of the managers experience in hotel industry, the context and environment one finds himself or herself determines whether he/she can become SHRM compliant or not.

as having peculiar characteristics with regards to the human resources and hospitality services provided. This chapter sets the foundation for investigating whether strategic human resource management can be implemented in a labour intensive industry like the hospitality sector in Queenstown.

Chapter 2, discusses the relevance and contributions derived from the tourism industry globally to which the hospitality industry is part of. This is discussed in terms of how the hospitality industry impacts economic growth and job creation. This chapter also highlights the HRM challenges encountered by the hospitality industry.

Chapter 3, reviews the HRM and SHRM literature through various definitions and theoretical perspectives; however, the definitions of these two concepts are multifaceted and imprecise. The review also brought out some interesting contrasting arguments between researchers regarding the definition of HRM and SHRM and how there is a thin line distinguishing between the two concepts. With the hotel industry regarded as a highly labour-intensive and competitive, this chapters sets the foundation of adopting four SHRM concepts which has been recommended by several researchers Tsaur and Lin (2004); Davies, Taylor, and Savery (2001); Cho, Woods, Jang, and Erdem (2006a) to be examined in relation to employee performance in different contexts.

In Chapter 4, the research methods and design are described. A qualitative case study approach was used to elicit information from two participants from distinct backgrounds with extensive experience in the hotel industry. These participants were assessed in relation to the key research question. The results of the study are presented in Chapter 5. Some of the results indicate that SHRM practices are better applied depending on the type and size of hotel, and others to the context and environment a manager finds himself or herself in.

Chapter 6 draws together the results and analysis of those results, revealing that chain hotels by virtue of having standardised HR practices demonstrate a better application of SHRM, than small independent hotels. The results also revealed that irrespective of the managers’ experience in hotel industry, the context and environment are important factors for SHRM compliance.

7.2

Contributions to knowledge of SHRM

The overarching contribution made by this study is to give insights into managers’ perceptions on four SHRM concepts and their influence on employee performance from the base of hotels in Queenstown, New Zealand. The study has several implications pertaining to the theory of SHRM within the

hospitality industry. This section highlights the contributions this thesis makes to the knowledge of SHRM.

First, this thesis has contributed to the relatively unexplored area of SHRM (Becker & Huselid, 2006) and addressed the empirical gap of limited studies specifically examining managers’ perceptions of how SHRM impacts on employee performance.

Second, this thesis confirmed the HRM literature that there is minimum participation of hotel managers in research, especially if it focuses on their employees. The lack of participation and involvement in research has implications with regards to data, drawing linkages and making recommendations for practice.

Third, this thesis found that location plays a key role in attracting skilled labour in the hotel industry. Queenstown is noted to be a tourist location, and therefore a high socioeconomic activity area. In the peak season most of the tourists hold temporary working visas with restricted conditions. These tourists make the majority of applicants seeking employment and are very often unskilled, and many having language difficulties. Another impediment that location places on the hotel industry in Queenstown is finding skilled employees to fill certain key positions.

Another important contribution to the SHRM literature is that chain hotels are more receptive to SHRM practices than independent hotels. Chain hotels, by virtue of having standardised HR practices, demonstrated better application of SHRM than the small independent hotels which were found to be more reactive in their approach.

Drawing from the findings of other studies (Taylor & Finley, 2008; Wilton, 2006) , this thesis concluded that irrespective of the manager’s experience in hotel industry, the context and environment one finds himself or herself determines whether he/she can become SHRM compliant or not. This because both participants of the study were found to have extensive experience in the hotel industry, however, it was easier for the one who had standardised HR practices to comply and implement SHRM practices than the other who had none.